Without A Heart
by Caeli Et Terra
Summary: It's been 3 weeks since the Galerians were killed...all of them. But what about Dorothy? Something's wrong with the city, & Lilia is the only one who knows what happened. But she won't do anything. How much will she sacrafice to keep a memory untouched?


Disclaimer: Any Galerian-related material used in this story belongs to it's respective owners.

**-Without a Heart-**

**Log Entry One- Awaken**

Darkness.

> Total darkness.

_ Where am I again? _thought Lilia. _Am I dreaming? Yes, I'm dreaming. I will wake up. None of this is real. When I wake up, I'll find myself on my bed. Mommy and daddy will be waiting for me in the breakfast room. And then, after I eat, I'll be able to play with Rion. We'll chase each other around and play tag! After all, we ARE just kids! Oh, I can't wait till I wake up! It'll be a blast! C'mon Lilia, wake up now! Open your eyes! You'll have a blast!_

In the midst of darkness two brown almonds peeked open, but they saw nothing. A dark world. _Did I wake up? _Lilia panicked. The darkness frightened her. She did not want to be alone. _No, I'm not awake! Wait- what is this? No- **WHO** is this? _She felt warmth in her arms...but it was fading away. Everything else was cold. The warmth of this object comforted her, warmed her like a wool blanket. But the warmth was rapidly disappearing, like a failing flashlight dimming inside a vast dark cave. "No! Don't go!" Lilia begged as she clung tighter to the subject in her arms. "Don't leave me alone!" But the warmth vanished, leaving her to freeze in the frigid darkness.

Lilia awoke with a jolt, as if she had tripped in her dream and her body reacted in the real world. The sun was a quarter up high in the sky already. It's glorious light warming her room. But despite the mild temperature the sun had blessed her room with, Lilia felt cold. Not physically, but mentally. It was the same iciness she had felt soon after her only warmth slipped from her arms, from her body and soul.

"These dreams aren't good for me." She moaned as she sat up, sending dust particles from her bed sheet into the air. The sunlight softly reflected upon the fine particles, creating a golden hue around the teenage girl. Oh, she looked so much like an angel. _What's with all this dust? How long have I been sleeping? _The answer came to her when she gazed at her bedside alarm clock. It read: Tuesday, March 22, 8:45 am. The last date she had remembered was that it was Sunday, March 20. _Hmm... Asleep two days. That's no wonder. _

Lilia's eyes wandered to a golden object that rested in front of her clock. It was a ring...Rion's ring. Tears welled up in Lilia's eyes. It has been three weeks since the death of her childhood friend. The three weeks went by so quickly, but it was slow and torturous. She remembered how she held his limp body in her arms. She had clung onto him with all her will, but he still left. He left her alone in the wrecked Mushroom tower. Lilia had seen his empty body in her arms with his head rested upon her right shoulder. His angelic face was turned up towards the sky, as if making it an easier access for his soul to reach the heavens above. Wait- he had no soul. Rion was a Galerian- a mere creature created by Mother Computer Dorothy. A creature with an artificial human body. The _real _Rion died a long time ago. His memories were just extracted and implanted into this clone. So this clone was the second remake of Rion, or maybe third. There was still Cain, who was the older twin of the Galerian Rion.

_ So there were three Rions_. Thought Lilia, _The Rion I knew as a child, and the Rion who saved me in Babylon Hotel, and Cain, the exact duplicate of Rion_..._and all three are dead. _The last word rung in her head over and over again. Dead. Lilia had tried to drag Rion's body down the Mushroom tower, but she had found him too heavy for her weak frame. _I remember how frustrated I was when I realized that I could not carry Rion's body any longer. I was angry with myself for being feeble. I pounded against the floor over and over again to relieve my frustration. I was confused. I wanted to scream at the world...and I did. I screamed as loud as I could, but my voice soon failed me. I sobbed and cried over him. And when I was done I sat there, pondering "what am I going to do with Rion's body?" I did not want to leave him in here. That wasn't a proper burial. But I couldn't drag him along with me. "If I leave him here, Michelangelo's corrupted city government could do something bad with the corpse."_

"I had no choice," Lilia spoke aloud to continue her trail of thoughts. "I pulled off the ring from his finger and abandoned his body in the family room. Out of all things, why did I take his ring as a remembrance of him? I dunno. I guess I had a sick imagination that day. Maybe, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was pretending that the gold jewelry was a wedding ring that Rion would someday present to me. Heheh, some imagination I have." Lilia grabbed the ring, slipped it onto her index finger (since it was too big for her ring and middle fingers), and walked up to her bedroom mirror.

A scrawny girl stared back at her. She was bony and her eyes swirled with sadness and despair. Her hair had grown about an inch or two since the annihilation of the Galerians. Her body was adorned with a loose garment, which looked more like a hospital dress than a pajama. "I was so lost that day...and I still am..."

"Oh, thank heavens you're awake!" Someone screamed as a middle aged woman burst out from the door. "Child, you had me worried!"

"Good morning, Aunty Selma." Lilia greeted with a faint smile. Selma wasn't even her aunt at all. Selma was a great friend of her father, Dr. Pascalle. She was also an engineer. Lilia had known her all her life, and Selma was the only person in the world that Lilia could turn to because every one else in her family was dead. Lilia was an orphan, and that's why Lilia came to Selma's house for comfort. "I guess I must have been really-"

"Tired? Of course you were! Why else would you sleep for so long!" Selma joyously approached the girl and gave her a long hug that seemed heart-warming. But this was Lilia. If the hug did anything to her, then for surely it did not warm up Lilia's heart. In fact, it just made the young teenager become annoyed with her aunt.

"Aunty, you can let go now." Lilia whispered, pretending that she was losing her breath so that it would seem that the hug was too tight for her liking. The older woman released her. However, a serious look came upon her face.

"What's wrong, little water lily? You used to like my hugs." Water Lily was a nickname that Selma had been calling her since she was little. Lilia had liked being called a Water Lily before. Now the name Water Lily just sounded pretty stupid to her ears. "Something's wrong with you, Water Lily. You've changed. You have changed ever since your father took you to that vacation. I don't think that _LONG_ vacation did any good to you. In fact, you came back to my house WITHOUT your father! He just disappeared off the face of the Earth. When you came back about three weeks ago you were all alone in the rain! Ever since then all you have done is sleep, think, and write! Your enthusiasm has gone! What happened?"

"Maybe I'm just going through that stage in my life..." Lilia muttered and looked down at the floorboards. "Don't worry, Aunty Selma. ALL teenagers go through this."

"You're right, maybe I'm just overreacting. But what about your father? Where is he?"

"He's busy...with scientist's stuff." Lilia lied. She did not want to tell her aunt that he was actually dead. It had surprised Lilia when she found out that none of the government officials announced any news of the massacre that the Galerian Rita had inflicted upon the city. Rita had killed her father along with many other men. The government knew about this, but they shoved it off as an unimportant event. "Anyway, enough about this. I'm hungry."

"Oh, right!" Selma hollered and smacked herself in the forehead. "Well, don't just stand there! Let's come downstairs and eat!" So simple, she had already forgotten about the topic. Lilia followed her aunt through the hallway and down the stairs into the kitchen. The smell of cold bacon wafted the air as soon as the two stepped into the room.

A plate of cold eggs and bacon laid on the table, untouched. The oil on the bacon was already getting cold, creating a yellowish solid substance atop of it. The sunny-side up eggs looked raw in the center while the edges were burned black. The food did not look a single bit appeasing. Lilia stared at her breakfast without moving. She dared not touch it. The raw eggs gave her the impression that she could get salmonella from eating it.

"Well, go on Water Lily! Eat!"

"Ummm....uh....I think I'll eat cereal today." Lilia stated as she helped herself to a bowl of cheerios from the cupboard.

"Suit yourself." Selma grabbed the cold plate and dumped its contents into the trash bin. "By the way, I'm heading to downtown Michelangelo. The Mayor has assigned a job for me there." Selma spoke out a couple of minutes later. "Would you like to come with me?"

_ Downtown Michelangelo..._Lilia whispered in her head. _That is the center point of the city. That is where the Mushroom Tower lies... Hmmm.... what HAS happened to the tower since I left? I didn't see any of it on the news. I haven't heard of anything new yet. _"Sure thing Aunty. I'll come along."

"That's great Lily!You see, I was hired to help fix some computers at Mushroom Tower..." _Mushroom Tower? Is she serious? What are they going to do with the place? _"...it seems that the city's computer has gone haywire or something like that. Hmmm.... Maybe that's why the trains are always sending its passengers to the wrong locations... Anywho, Computer Dorothy is currently down. Some other engineers and I were hired to fix up Dorothy again so that she may be back and running. I say that Dr. Steiner and Dr. Pascalle should be assigned to this since they were the ones who created the Computer. Say Lily, is that what your father is doing? You know, the scientist's stuff you told me about?"

"Ummm.... I dunno Auntie Selma. He never told me what or where his job is..."

"Ah, but he must be there!" Selma clasped her hands together in delight. "I haven't seen your father in five years! It would be great to meet an old friend of mine!" _But you'll never see him again_, Lilia thought inside her head. She wanted to say it aloud, but she did not want Selma to find out about her father's death. _Besides, there's no way that she can revive Computer Dorothy. Rion inserted the virus into her. She is dead. She cannot come back to life...unless they give her a new system. Oh no!_

"Auntie, you mustn't go to downtown! Don't accept the job!" Lilia wailed. _If Dorothy is reawakened, then Rion's death would be in vain!_ Lilia's heart trembled at the thought. Plus, Dorothy's control over the city was just like a silent dictatorship. She had corrupted the city government so much that people did not see the downfall of the city. Improvements of the city's condition have already slightly appeared since Dorothy's death. The streets were a little bit cleaner, and the police took care of the criminal situations... most of the time anyway.

"Oh why not, Lily? The pay is high, AND it'll help out the city. Remember, people have been getting lost for the past three weeks because the trains aren't following the map. Several stations have already assigned men to _manually_ maneuver the vehicles. C'mon it'll be nice."

"But-"

"No buts! It's final!" Selma raised her voice. Lilia staggered back at the sudden change of volume. "Oh, I'm sorry Lily. I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that... it's just that I need a job, you know. My finances are lowering and the city's taxes are getting higher and higher... I _need _the money."

Lilia sensed that something was wrong. She had a hunch that her aunt wasn't telling her everything, like- financial problems? Since when did the Pascalles' have problems with money? Lilia knew for a fact that her family is one of the richest in the state, so why had they suddenly dropped down?

"C'mon, Lily." Selma spoke again, this time without the sadness in her voice tone. "Dr. Steiner might be there as well. Heck- you might even see Rion! Remember him? The boy you used to play with all the time? He'll be there. I'm _sure_ of it."

Tbc..

So, how was it? I needed a break from my YGO fanfics, so I just made this.


End file.
